Letter: Release innocent from Guantanamo

To the editor

Published 8:16 pm, Thursday, July 25, 2013

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Vietnam veteran Elliott Adams, 66, of Sharon Springs, protest against the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base prison facility, Wednesday evening, July 10, 2013, on Wolf Road in Colonie, N.Y. Adams has been fasting for over fifty days in protest to the force-feeding of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Adams has limited himself to 300 calories for eight weeks. HeOs down to 138 pounds from 170. (Dennis Yusko/Times Union) less

Elliott Adams risked his life as a paratrooper in Vietnam. He has served two terms as mayor of Sharon Springs. He is now risking his health by fasting with other Veterans for Peace in solidarity with the hunger strike by prisoners who are being held at the Guantanamo Bay U.S naval base in Cuba. Mr. Adams also has been conducting a public protest and information initiative on the corner of Wolf Road and Central Avenue ("Using hunger as a weapon of protest," July 13).

While the government claims there are some high-value prisoners that can be neither charged nor tried, there are also 86 prisoners who have been cleared for release, but they continue to be held because the government says there is nowhere to transfer them.

This holding of innocent prisoners should be recognized as unconscionable by any standard of basic fairness or human rights. One option would be to immediately transfer them to our country, and set them free with whatever hosting and monitoring arrangement that is deemed appropriate.